1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for improving computer functionality, and more particularly, to method for obtaining timestamp and a computer device using the method.
2. Description of Related Art
With the rapid spread of computer technology, people have an increasing demand for server systems. In response to market demands, Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) has been proposed by various manufacturers in the industry. IPMI is the next generation universal interface standard for a smart hardware management across different operating systems, firmware and hardware platforms. IPMI is capable of smartly monitoring, controlling and automatically reporting a massive amount of server operating statuses, so as to lower costs for the server system.
In general, a management server is one that uses a management platform of IPMI, and Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) is a core controller of said management platform. A system management software realizes managements for each managed device through communication with the BMC. BMC can record events occurred across the entire system of the management platform together with the corresponding timepoints into System Event Log (SEL) for administrators to look up.
While managing the servers, one of common problems for administrators is that a timestamp recorded in SEL by BMC is not very accurate. In terms of current technology, BMC can now perform a time correction during boot up by Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), or BMC itself can even perform the time correction with support functions from Network Time Protocol (NTP). Nonetheless, aforementioned methods for the time correction can only ensure the correctness of Real-Time Clock (RTC) for BMC but cannot guarantee the correctness of the timestamp recorded in SEL. This is because BMC adds the timestamp by polling each sensor when SEL is to be written. As restricted by a computing capability of BMC, BMC is unable to provide a very accurate timestamp for SEL, e.g., the timestamp cannot be accurate at millisecond level.
Based on the above reasons, when multiple events take places at closing timepoints (e.g., at millisecond level), administrators cannot determine an order in which these events occurred according to the timestamps recorded in SEL. Consequently, administrators will not be able to correctly find out the reason why these events occur. Accordingly, allowing BMC to provide a more accurate timestamp has become one of the problems to be addressed by persons skilled in the art.